"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." — C.S. Lewis

Something a little different this week, since there’s been a lot of serious topics of late. I recently mentioned (and added a link to) The Babylon Bee satire site. The site has plenty of content so I don’t catch all the ‘articles,’ but fortunately a friend highlighted this one for me:

Church Oblivious To Number Of Metallica References Pastor Getting Away With

Citing their apparent ignorance of anything having to do with the Los Angeles-based thrash metal band, pastor Cliff Blackburn of Lancaster Baptist Church expressed his amazement Monday that nobody in the congregation had caught on to the fact that he has been cramming as many Metallica references into his sermons as humanly possible for the past five months.

“I started out subtle, with one sermon about hypocrisy called ‘Holier Than Thou,’ and another one about evangelism called ‘Hit The Lights,’” Blackburn explained to reporters. “After that, I started getting more overt. A few weeks later, my lesson about addiction and habitual sin drew heavily from ‘Master of Puppets.’ When nobody picked up on that, I decided to see how far I could push it.” (Read the rest here)

I confess: I’m a fan of classic Metallica music (especially The Black Album). There must be something genetic to it, because the Middle Musketeer can play half their repertoire on guitar. So we had a great fit of laughter together reading the Bee’s post, after which we tried to build on it. We decided the fictional pastor should continue with a message about how for Christians “To Live is To Die,” and how saving grace means not having to worry about “The Four Horsemen” just before Christ returns “…And With Justice For All.”

It seems apropos that just as Autumn is arriving I found this video. It’s part of a series taken in different national parks. They’re not all done yet, but the ones that are up are worth checking out. For full screen viewing, click the “X” on the bottom right of the video. Enjoy!

The emphasis isn’t on the music today. I’m fascinated by the sport of wingsuit flying. I’d love the view if I didn’t have to worry about split-second errors being fatal. These guys really need to know the terrain and do thorough mission planning. Fortunately, they’re also willing to share the view. Enjoy!